My latest article after a hiatus on MSA partnering with ReGenesis

MSA partners with ReGenesis to clean up campus woodlot

The Muslim Students’ Association at York partnered with ReGenesis, a grassroots environmental organization that has a goal of environmental sustainability, to clean up the Boyer Woodlot.

A group of more than a dozen students descended to Boyer Woodlot for a cleanup effort on October 24.
The Muslim Students’ Association at York partnered with ReGenesis, a grassroots environmental organization that has a goal of environmental sustainability, to clean up the Boyer Woodlot. The event started with volunteers from MSA gathering after Friday prayers, then meeting up with Regenesis volunteers and gathering up the garbage in Boyer Woodlot they could find.
Ahmed Abdi, third year health studies student and MSA vice president, says “A part of our faith is to facilitate cleanliness whether it be within our daily lives or within the community at large so we thought partnering with ReGenesis would manifest our faith in our actions.” continue reading...

With Liberty and Justice for Some

Like Glenn Greenwald said With Liberty and Justice for Some.

How One Man Refused to Spy on Fellow Muslims for the FBI—and Then Lost Everything

The case of Ayyub Abdul-Alim fits a decades-long pattern of government criminalization of African-American Muslims.
via Arun Kundnani, Emily Keppler and Muki Najaer

On the night of December 9, 2011, Siham Stewart called her husband, Ayyub Abdul-Alim, as he closed down his corner store, Nature’s Garden, in Springfield, Massachusetts. She asked him to bring home a gallon of milk. A few minutes later, she watched from the window of their second-floor apartment as he was seized in the street and handcuffed by two police officers.
Forty-eight hours after Abdul-Alim’s arrest, FBI agent James Hisgen and Springfield police officer Ronald Sheehan offered him the chance to walk away free of charges if he agreed to become an informant on the Muslim community. He refused the deal and is now held at the Cedar Junction maximum-security prison in Massachusetts, facing up to sixteen years behind bars.
While awaiting trial, Abdul-Alim discovered that his wife received cash payments from the FBI totaling at least $11,949. The receipts were signed by Sheehan and Hisgen. Stewart testified against Abdul-Alim in court and admitted to working as an informant. This past April, Abdul-Alim was found guilty of illegal possession of a firearm that he alleges the officers planted on him as part of their attempt to pressure him to work for the FBI.continue reading...